Loony Laws and Legislators
So, I happen to come across news on some 'law' which is ridiculous in obvious ways upon reading the first two sentences...COLUMBUS - An Ohio legislative panel yesterday rubber-stamped an unprecedented process that would allow sex offenders to be publicly identified and tracked even if they've never been charged with a crime.
No one in attendance voiced opposition to rules submitted by Attorney General Jim Petro's office to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, consisting of members of the Ohio House and Senate.
Is it just me, or does this 'unprecedented process' reek of violation of due process and a continuing trend of sexual hysteria? Last time I checked, one had to be charged with a crime to become a sex offender.
The fact that no one has voiced opposition is what scares me the most. Considering that Forbes magazine put out something far less malign recently and immediately got hammered with criticism, I would have thought that we could have at least a tiny sliver of dissent, just like with the Iraq War. However, no such dissent has materialized, and I also doubt that there will be that many 'real men' in the media to question the manhood of some of these senators and house members of Ohio who didn't fight such lunacy. Better to save that for guys that spend an hour or two grooming everyday, I suppose. [/sarcasm]
A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.
What the hell is up with this emphasis on "even if they're not found guilty by law"? Is the state of Ohio that desperate for people to treat as criminals? The fact that even alleged (i.e. unproven) victims can get in on the act makes it sound more like an intentional loophole for women that cry 'abuse' to use just in case there isn't a few hundred thousand dollars to give them to shut up. All that would really be different is to replace a financial incentive with a some kind of psycho-social incentive. It's definitely not going to do anything to help people that actually suffer sexual abuse.
The person's name, address, and photograph would be placed on a new Internet database and the person would be subjected to the same registration and community notification requirements and restrictions on where he could live.
Ha ha...after all the gender-neutral language that begins the description of this evil little law, we see 'he' right at the end. Not 'she', 'the person', or 'he or she', but 'he'. Anybody out there care to guess who's going to make up the vast majority of people targeted and unfairly harassed by this law?
A civilly declared offender, however, could petition the court to have the person's name removed from the new list after six years if there have been no new problems and the judge believes the person is unlikely to abuse again.
After six years? Why not just wait until the offender is actually convicted before putting them on the list? Oh, right, because this has nothing to do with actually intending to prevent sexual abuse, but nearly everything to do with sending the state to terrorize men and boys...all while denouncing terror when used overseas. Not surprising at all, given that for all the supposed Christian values in this country, some seem to be content with making pagan sacrifices to harmful government policies.
posted by el-chozo-loco @ 1:11 AM
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